Triple Rockower Award honors for JI

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The Jewish Independent has been honored this year with three more Rockower Awards for excellence in Jewish journalism. The winners were announced at the annual conference of the American Jewish Press Association (AJPA), which took place in Dallas, Tex., on June 29.

The Independent took first place in its division for excellence in editorial writing, Richard Wenner took second for excellence in feature writing and Mira Sucharov placed second for excellence in single commentary.

Most of the award categories are divided into two divisions: newspapers with more than 15,000 circulation and all magazines/websites, and newspapers with under 14,999 circulation. The JI falls into the latter group.

The Sept. 24, 2010, winning editorial “Racism is deplorable” was motivated by several anti-Islam e-mails received by the Independent. It warned of the dangers and immorality of spreading hatred, and the AJPA award judges commented, “Thoughtful piece on a large and far-reaching topic – criticism of Islamic tenets and whether, when and how such criticism should be justifiably pursued. Stands out among many less clear articles written and less clear stances taken on an issue of continuing importance.”

Placing second in the same division was “Good at heart,” which appeared in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, and was described by judges as a “truly beautiful, poetic and insightful piece in memory of Miep Gies, the Anne Frank rescuer, with a startling and entirely effective invocation of language from ‘Dayenu’ making the point universal.”

There was only one award given for editorial writing in the larger-circulation group, and that went to New York’s Jewish Daily Forward for “Faith at Ground Zero,” which the judges noted as a “[b]alanced yet forceful defence of building the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’; given its readership, undoubtedly influential.”

Wenner’s “One patriarch’s estate” appeared in the Oct. 29, 2010, JI. In it, the Vancouver lawyer at Coric Adler Wenner (cawlaw.ca) postulated what might have happened if Abraham had died in British Columbia today, and how his wives and children might have benefited differently had the family done some estate planning. His creative and informative article came in second to Marilyn Hawkes’ “A piece of your mind: Ethical wills let you express your values to future generations,” which was published in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.

In the larger-circulation division, Denver’s Intermountain Jewish News took both first and second place: first for Andrea Jacobs’ “Eyes from the ashes,” about Ann Weiss, who, during a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1986, discovered thousands of pre-Holocaust photos “confiscated from an entire community of Jews transported to the death camp after the 1943 liquidation of the Bedzin ghetto in Poland,” after which she created an educational foundation, a film and a book; and second for Chris Leppek’s “Protecting our children,” a profile of Passaic, N.J., Rabbi Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, who “has taken a lonely and sometimes precarious stance as a vocal combatant against sexual molestation – especially when it victimizes the young – in the Orthodox Jewish community.”

Rounding out the JI hat trick was Sucharov’s April 30, 2010, opinion piece entitled “On the heels of destruction.” Also published on her blog (huffingtonpost.com/mira-sucharov) and in a few other papers, the article by the associate professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa considers the March of the Living program, which “takes Jewish youth on the three-kilometre route of the death march between Auschwitz and Birkenau to witness the locus of the destruction of European Jewry. In Poland, participants commemorate an unforgettable Yom Hashoah. Many of them continue on to a second phase of the trip – to Israel, where they have the opportunity to celebrate a Yom Ha’atzmaut like no other.

“Those who take part in the trip come away with the ability to visualize Jewish collective history in a most powerful way,” she writes. “But in pairing the Holocaust with contemporary Israel, the program potentially sets up a problematic linkage between Israeli policies and Jewish existential security.”

Winner of first place for excellence in single commentary within the smaller-circulation group was Michael E. Bennett, for his article “iPad: Another apple for Adam and Eve?,” which examines the question, “Will Apple’s new techno-wizbang gadget kill newspapers, books, PCs, laptops and everything else we hold dear? Or will it resuscitate a struggling media industry gasping for air?” It was published by the Cleveland Jewish News.

For the 15,000-plus division of this awards category, Jill Jacobs’ article in the Jewish Daily Forward, “When the slumlords are us,” placed first. Using the example of Jews who are neglectful landlords, Jacobs looks at the problem of some Jewish community members’ poor behavior and what can be done about it: “Jewish organizations, with their limited budgets and staff time, cannot be expected to investigate the business dealings of every donor. But when misbehavior comes to light, we have the opportunity to consider our obligation to use our influence to change the behavior of members of our Jewish communities.”

The second-place winner in this division – “What don’t you understand about all Israel?” by Jay Michaelson, published in New York’s Hadassah Magazine – begins, “The story of Israel, it has often been remarked, is a tale of two cities: secular Tel Aviv and religious Jerusalem. They are indeed different worlds: one with universalist aspirations, another with competing particularisms; one facing Europe, another tilted toward heaven. They are also shorthand for two movements in Zionism – and a local version of how Athens and Jerusalem stand for two poles of Western civilization.”

For more on these articles, as well as the other award-winning submissions, visit ajpa.org. The association, which was founded in 1944, has as its mission “to ensure a bright future for Jewish journalism and the Jewish community by promoting robust, independent and financially healthy Jewish media.” Among other functions, it “fosters the highest ethics, editorial quality and business standards to help our members navigate their challenges and responsibilities, especially those unique to the Jewish media.”

AJPA membership comprises some 250 newspapers, magazines, individual journalists and affiliated organizations throughout North America, with a combined readership of member publications of more than 2.5 million. The Jewish Independent was the only Canadian award-winner this year. Since its inception in 1930, the Independent, formerly the Jewish Western Bulletin, has received many honors, including, as of this year, at least 20 Rockowers, multiple Smolar Awards (from the then-Council of Jewish Federations), more than one Media Human Rights Award (from the League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith Canada), as well as an Ethnic Press Council of Canada award, a B.C. Newspaper Foundation honor and a Jack Webster award for excellence in British Columbia journalism.

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